A Bit About Me: Writer’s Edition

Early Writing

At age two, I carried a stack of books to bed with me at night. I then proceeded to “read” them until I fell asleep. I couldn’t go to bed without them. From then on, my love of books never went away.

I wrote my first picture book around age six. Then another one. And another one. And then I began my first middle grade novel. I got about halfway through before it was lost. In eighth grade, I started writing poetry. I wrote poems everywhere I went—in line for Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, lying in bed at night, breaks between my ballet and technique classes at dance.

The Study of Writing

Then my junior year in high school came along. I was in advanced placement junior English with an extremely intimidating British teacher. She was very tall and all it took was one look from her and you wanted to run in the other direction. She pushed my writing further than I thought it could go. Nothing was good enough. She knew I could do better. By the end of that year, my writing was stronger than it had ever been. And I was convinced, more than ever, that I wanted to be a writer.

In my undergraduate studies, I took as many English courses as I could possibly squeeze in. Alongside my course work, I researched as much as I could about a career in writing. And in my spare time, whatever little there was of it, I wrote. I wrote just about everything—magazine articles, poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction, travel essays, blogs. And I loved it all. It was hard for me to choose what I loved most; it was all so fascinating.

Falling in Love with Writing for Children

With the birth of my son during my junior year of college, a lot changed for me. I began to read picture books again—something I hadn’t done since I was a child. I read them constantly because I wanted to instill in my baby boy the love of books I, myself, had. {**Side note: I was successful!} One day I came across the book Big Plans by Bob Shea. I couldn’t stop laughing. The character had such a strong voice and the story was captivating. I was convinced the book was written for the adults reading the book out loud, not the children listening. And yet kids loved it too. It was then that I knew what I wanted to do: I wanted to write for children.

From there the ideas flowed. I got ideas not only for picture books, but for middle grade and young adult novels. And while I didn’t want to give up writing short stories, articles, or essays, I knew what I wanted to focus on.